As Irene was watching ring necked parakeets at her home (see last post), Sally and I were watching a flock of 8 in a wood near Cobham. The birds flew in to a hornbeam tree directly above our heads. They started to feed on the hornbeam seeds. They broke off the seed clusters with their feet and then transferred the seeds to their beaks! I have never seen a bird do this before! Sue tells me that this is how birds in the parrot family feed – using their feet to transfer fruit etc to their beaks. How come I didn’t know that? Well now I do, but it is still amazing to watch. Have a look at Sally’s 30 sec video – a parakeet watching me watching it feed. It is a bit like the first time I found a praying mantis. I slowly walked towards it so that I could catch it and then it turned its head to look at me! I could almost hear it saying “don’t even think about it mate”.
Malcolm